FISHERIES AND MARINE SERVICE Translation Series No. 4334 ...

determined according to the method by P. C. den Herder (10) in the
petroleum ether extracts. Furthermore, the Table contains the amounts
of cholesterol calculated for each 100 g portion of edible herring parts.
From the examined herring fillets, between 10% and 24% petroleum
ether extracts were obtained. The Table thus comprises a range from
lean to fat herrings. From these petroleum ether extracts between 0.58%
and 0.23% cholesterol were separated with digitonin. It became evident
from the amounts of petroleum ether extract and the resulting cholesterol
values that the petroleum ether extracts from fat—rich herrings contained
less cholesterol than the extracts from lean herring fillets.
According to this it is generally sufficient for the assessment
of the designation to determine the cholesterol content in the herring
oil extracted with petroleum ether. More extensive examinations are
necessary only if the cholesterol content is markedly higher. However, (1833)
attention must be paid to the fact that the herring fillets may undergo
changes in their composition during processing which may manifest them-
selves also in a lowering of the fat content. However, these fat losses
are clearly detectable only in preparations with fish parts from very
fat herring fillets. Thus the type of processing is very important for
the evaluation of designation containing the word "Matjes" from the point
of view of food control.
Table 3 lists the results of investigations which were obtained
from commercial Matjes herrings.
According to the additional designations in the declarations and
invoices, at least one half of the listed examples involved Dutch Matjes
herrings. If one proceeds from the determined salt contents, all the
10